Turkey’s deputy prime minister has revealed that the country's national spy agency is keeping tabs on almost 2,500 people, mostly foreigners. The news comes amid a parliamentary debate over expanding the bureau's espionage powers.

"As of today, National Intelligence Organization (MIT)
eavesdrops on 2,473 people. More than half of them are
foreigners," Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said, as
quoted by AFP.

Atalay said the eavesdropping is used to uncover suspected
terrorists. Under current legislation, MIT must obtain a court
order for each target it wants to spy on.

On Saturday, Turkey’s parliament began to debate a new bill which
would expand national espionage powers. The initiative strives to
give more power to the spy agency, allowing it to bypass the
courts when carrying out undercover operations and surveillance
in Turkey and abroad.

If passed, the new law would give the MIT new powers to conduct
operations abroad and eavesdrop on pay phones and international
calls without first obtaining permission to do so. The bill also
introduces jail terms of up to 12 years for the publication of
leaked classified documents, Reuters reported.

As the debate began, the government withdrew one clause from the
bill following harsh criticism from parliamentary lawmakers. The
controversial clause involved making Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan the head of the MIT’s intelligence coordination
board.

The new bill was submitted by Erdogan on Wednesday, after
parliament passed new laws tightening government control over the
internet and the courts earlier this month.

"This bill will bring the MIT in line with the necessities of
the era, grant it the capabilities of other intelligence
agencies, and increase its methods and capacity for individual
and technical intelligence," the draft document says.

Erdogan has faced fierce opposition to his attempts to expand the
agency’s reach.

"The prime minister is completely getting rid of the
principle of accountability...The MIT is becoming his private
organization. This is a transition from police state to
intelligence state," member of parliament for the main
opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Engin Altay, told
Reuters.

Erdogan equated whistleblowing to “treason” last
December, when he slammed a Turkish daily for leaking state
documents which included information on the government’s
profiling of citizens and surveillance of the activities of
religious groups.

“I now see that some media groups are hand-in-hand,”
Erdogan said, as quoted by UPI. “Exposing state secrets is
not freedom but absolutely treason to the country and
homeland.”

Erdogan was speaking in reference to the leaked documents that
Taraf daily published in late November and early December 2013.
He reminded that the Turkish constitution strictly prohibits
whistleblowing, adding that no one has the right to leak state
secrets.

The first leaked document published by Taraf was from Turkey's
National Security Council (MGK). It detailed a secret plot
against Hizmet, a movement founded by Islamic scholar Fethullah
Gulen.